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Monday, August 31, 2015

This year has flown by! I cannot believe it is already September tomorrow.

I've had a crazy, busy year. The first half of the year was spent working on an early reader series for Cambridge University Press (UK). It was not the first time I'd written for this age group as I'd written a book for Macmillan UK called Elephants, which was part non-fiction and part cartoon story. But in this case with CUP, the readers were graded and learning the system required a very steep incline to be tackled. In the end, I wrote three fiction titles and two nonfiction. They will hopefully be coming out next year.

I've been spending a lot of time during the last few months going through various edits for my two books that will be coming out soon.

My book Thato Lekoko: Superhero will be coming out with Oxford University Press- SA in December this year. It's the story of a young teenager who is trying to manage her school duties, her home life, and her friends, while also being a superhero who can be called out at any time to save a dog in a well or a man in a car accident. She tries her best, but never seems able to measure up. This is the second book I have at Oxford University Press SA. The first is The Second Worst Thing which is now CAPS approved for grade 7 and is read in the schools there (along with my book with Vivlia, Curse of the Gold Coins, which is CAPS approved for the same age).

The other book I'm very excited about is called The Scattering and is being published by Umuzi (the South African imprint of Penguin/ Random House). It is my first published adult literary novel and my first book with Umuzi, an exceptional South African publisher.

The Scattering is the story of Tjipuka. It takes place primarily around the years of 1904-1908. Tjipuka is Herero and lives in the then German South West Africa (GSWA). After a series of events, the Herero rise up against the Germans and, at first, are successful. But then the Germans arrive with overwhelming fire power and a mission to exterminate all Herero people. In the final battle on the plateau of Ohamakari, Tjipuka loses her husband Ruhapo. Then begins her journey through the harsh desert, the concentration camp at the coast, and finally to Bechuanaland (the colonial name for Botswana) where she mistakenly believes she will re-find the peace that was lost on Ohamakari. The book will be coming out next year in May.

So that's 2015 so far. When I look back on what I've been working on this year, it looks as if I have been preparing for a very big 2016. Crossing fingers that next year, the 50th birthday of the country of my heart, Botswana, will be as wonderful as I hope it will for both me and Botswana.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

On
Saturday 1 August writers came together at Maruapula School (thanks for the
room, MAP!) for the Bessie Head Heritage Trust (BHHT) short story workshop. It
was a one-day event packed with information for writers. The objective was to
improve the quality of the submissions for the Bessie Head Short Story Award
later this year.

Writers
around the country were asked to submit a 500 word story if they were
interested in attending the workshop. From there twenty-two writers were
chosen. Sadly, of the twenty-two only ten managed to attend, but at least those
ten seemed committed to writing and improving their stories. I hope we’ll find
their names among the winners later this year.

The
facilitators were three past Bessie Head Literature Award winners: Wazha
Lopang, Wame Molefhe, and me. Topics covered included: what makes a story a
story, show don’t tell, point of view, tips for writing stories and the
importance of reading, building tension, and writing realistic dialogue. The
guidelines for this year’s contest were discussed by Trust member, Dr Mary
Lederer.

Wame
Molefhe explained that presenting facts is telling, but showing in your stories
is the real challenge. When writers are able to show the reader what they see
in their mind, the reader will stay interested. A story that is all telling is
a boring story. She used Unity Dow’s novel Far and Beyond to give examples of
how a writer writes so as to show. She gave participants a writing exercise
where they had to describe an angry man and a beautiful woman without using
those adjectives and instead getting the reader to see and come to the
conclusion that the character is either angry or beautiful.

Wazha
Lopang taught the group about point of view and why a writer chooses one point
of view over another to tell their story. Choosing between first person, second
person, or the various types of third person will depend on how you want to
tell your story. He explained how each point of view puts restrictions on the
writer. For example, if you choose first person and the narrator is an eight
year old boy, you cannot expect him to know the intricacies of a car’s
carburettor.

Wame
Molefhe warned the participants not to use dialogue as an information dump. The
people talking already know things about each other. For example if two friends
are talking, a clumsy writer might want to get in the information about how
they became friends through a conversation. If one of the friends says in a
normal conversation- “When we became friends in standard one, when we were
seven and living in Serowe.” – that would be an unrealistic conversation and a
good example of an information dump.

Molefhe
also spoke about how dialogue is punctuated, which was quite important since
many writers are unsure about the punctuation around dialogue and tend to leave
it out of their stories because of that fear, making the stories worse for it.
She gave pointers on the use of dialogue tags (i.e. he said, she asked, he
whimpered, etc.) which again was very useful.

Lopang
gave a list of ways to build tension into your stories. Dramatic tension is
what keeps readers interested in the story, without it they will stop reading.
Some of the things Lopang mentioned were sentence length (short sentences up
the tension), the manipulation of time, repetition, italics, and the weighing
of options by the character. When manipulating time, meaning cutting back in
time at the peak of a dramatic scene, a writer can leave the reader wanting to
know what happens. He also explained how repeating a phrase or italicising it
can also create tension. He gave the example of a person coming home and
finding their front door open. You might write: The door is open. What could
that mean? The door is open. Or: the door
is open. Either option emphasises the fear in the character’s head and ups
the tension for the reader.

Mary
Lederer explained the guidelines for the contest this year. It is only for short
stories, unlike in the past. The prizes are being sponsored by Diamond
Educational Publishers. The deadline for the submissions (which can only be
done by email) is 15 September. All details for the contest can be found here.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

The Bessie Head Heritage Trust has been fortunate
to nab three of Africa’s rising writing stars as judges for this year’s short
story competition. The three judges who will choose the winner of this year’s
prize sponsored by Diamond Educational Publishers are Zukiswa Wanner, Karen
Jennings, and Fiona Snyckers.

Karen Jennings was born in South Africa
but recently relocated to Brazil. She is the author of Finding Soutbek and the short story collection Away from the Dead. She also edited the anthology of short stories Feast, Famine and Potluck for Short
Story Day Africa in 2013. She holds masters degrees in English literature and
creative writing, both from the University of Cape Town, and in 2015 she will complete
a Ph.D. in English Literature at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Zukiswa Wanner was born in Zambia to
Zimbabwean and South African parents. A widely published journalist and
novelist, she currently lives in Nairobi. She was listed among sub-Saharan
Africa’s most exciting writers under forty and was included on the Hay
Festival’s Africa39 list. Her debut novel, The Madams, was shortlisted
for the K. Sello Duiker Award in
2007, and her novel, Men of the South, was shortlisted for the 2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Her most
recent novel is London Cape Town Joburg
(Kwela Books, 2014). Most recently she was announced as one of the judges for
next year’s Pan-African Etisalat Prize for first novels

Fiona Snyckers is the author of the
popular Trinity series of books (Trinity Rising, Team Trinity, and Trinity on
Air). She graduated from the University of Witwatersrand with a first class
masters’ degree in English literature. In addition to her novels, she writes
numerous articles across a wide array of subjects including lifestyle, humour,
reviews, and opinion.

For an opportunity to have your work
read by these accomplished writers, you
need to enter! This year’s Bessie Head Short Story Competition is for short
stories only. Submissions can only be sent online to bessiehead@gmail.com as a Word document
attachment. There is no theme and the
maximum word count is 5000 words. Only citizens and residents of Botswana are
eligible. The deadline for all submissions is 15 September 2015. For complete
information on formatting and other requirements, see the Bessie Head webpage here.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Across
the spectrum artists tend to be crap business people who make other artists’
lives more difficult because of the bad business decisions that they make. Take
musicians. Musicians like playing music, so when they get the opportunity to
play for the public they take it. The problem is unscrupulous business folk
take advantage of that characteristic of musicians and use it to get free
entertainment. They’ll say things such as: “Come Friday night, you can play a
few hours at my club and get exposure.” The musician is excited. The
opportunity to play – yay! The
business person exploits the musician’s poor business acumen and the musician
pitches up, plays, and then goes home with empty pockets.

Okay,
you can say- that’s fine, that’s the musician’s business, he’s “not in it for
the money”. But it’s actually not fine. Because now when the person trying to
be a professional, a musician attempting to make a living from music,
approaches that club and tells the owner that their fee is P3000 for a two hour
set, the owner thinks the person is mad, a diva trying to rip them off. See,
the owner is used to getting music for free thanks to the musicians that came
before this one. It makes it a steep, uphill climb for the professional
musician to educate the owner that workers should be paid for the work that
they do- all workers. And they should
be paid a fair fee.

The
same goes for contracts. So many artists will agree to perform without a
contract. “We have a verbal agreement,” they say. Verbal agreements mean nothing; they’re
usually the beginning of a long drawn out, and often bitter, argument about
money. Artists must get written contracts. The contracts should include the
responsibilities of each party, and they should breakdown how the money should
be paid. For example, if you’re a dancer, you might want a certain percentage
before the event, maybe 40%, so that you have money to get yourself there,
money for rehearsals, etc. Then the remaining 60% of the fee should be paid
immediately after the performance. Any other requirements should also be in
that contract. It needn’t be drawn up by a lawyer, just a straight forward
agreement, all of the things that were discussed in your meeting to set up the
gig, written down on paper, both parties sign it.

The
same applies for writers. Writing for free is problematic. It sets up the same
situation as playing music for free. It makes editors think that writing is not
something that needs to be paid for, making it difficult for professional
writers to make a living wage.

Many
writers get so excited when they get a story or book manuscript taken for
publication they don’t take the time to read their contract carefully. They are
overflowing with gratitude and see no reason to disagree with the publisher on
anything. There are many places in a book contract, for example, where the
publisher has leeway for discussion. Writers must read contracts carefully and
consider the long term effect of what they are signing. Where they don’t like
something, they have the right to ask for it to be changed. If it can’t be
changed, and the writer finds the clause difficult to live with, they can walk
away from the deal. Nothing is locked in until the contract is signed, but once
it is- that’s it. You need to live with it.

Writers
who accept everything, even things that are not good for them and other writers,
make it more difficult for all writers. When a professional writer now
questions things on the contract or questions the behaviour of the publisher on
things such as marketing or timely payment of royalties, they are considered
problematic because the publisher only has experience with writers who do not
view writing from a professional perspective.

Artists
in all sectors must think how their actions affect all of us. Trying to make a
living from the arts in Botswana is difficult. If the buyers of our work see us
as unprofessional, as people who take art as a hobby, they will see no need to
treat us as the professionals we actually view ourselves as. We are the ones
who can define the artistic economy in the country, but it will require effort
from everyone to improve the situation.

(This column appeared in my column It's All Write in the 7 August, 2015 edition of Mmegi newspaper)

Friday, August 7, 2015

I have always thought you can't set out to win a short story contest. You must just write the best story you can write, everything else is out of your hands. This article says what I've always thought.

I use short story contests as motivation to write a new story. If it does okay in the contest, that's just an added bonus. Just write folks, write the best thing you can. Everything else will sort itself out.

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About Me

I'm Lauri Kubuitsile. I'm a full-time, award-winning writer living in Botswana. I have numerous published books for both kids and adults, across various genres, and my short stories have been published around the world.
I have won the Pan-African prize for children's writing, The Golden Baobab, twice. I won the Bessie Head Literature Award for short story, the 2007 AngloPlatinum Short Story Contest, and the Botswana's Department of Arts and Culture, 2007 Botswerere Award for Creative Writing. I was shortlisted for the 2011 Caine Prize.

NEWS!!! NEWS!!!! NEWS!!!! NEWS!!!! NEWS!!! NEWS!!!

- Lauri's book, Signed, The Secret Keeper (the second instalment of her Amogelang Sethunya series) is now out, published by Diamond Educational Publishers!!

-In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata and Other Stories is now available in print!!! It's published by Hands-On Books. Get it HERE. It is published as an ebook by HopeRoad- London. All stories in the collection are set in Botswana. Buy it HERE.

My Writing Successes

I have numerous published books, including three books from my Kate Gomolemo Detective series; The Fatal Payout (Macmillan 2005) , Murder for Profit (Pentagon 2008) and Anything for Money (Vivlia 2010). My children's book Mmele and the Magic Bones (Pentagon 2008) was short-listed for the African Writers Prize (UK) and has since been chosen as a set book for all primary schools in Botswana.

My book The Fatal Payout is a set work for all junior secondary school students in Botswana. Two of my books The Second Worst Thing (Oxford University Press) and The Curse of the Gold Coins (Vivlia) are CAPS approved in South African schoold for grade 7.

My short stories have won numerous prizes including first prize in the 2007 BTA/AngloPlatinum Short Story Contest, and twice winning highly commended in the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association Short Story Contest. I won the Golden Baobab Prize in both 2009 and 2010, first in the junior section and the following year the senior section. My stories can be found on four continents; online, in print literary and popular magazines, and in anthologies.

In 2005, I was among three writers short-listed for our national, biannual prize for creative writing the Orange/Botswerere Prize. In 2007, I took first position for the same prize. In 2011 I was short-listed for The Caine Prize.

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The Second Worst Thing

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SOME OF THE BOOKS BY LAURI KUBUITSILE

Below see some of the covers of Lauri's books.

Signed, Hopelessly in Love

YA book published by Tafelberg. Now available!! Click the book to BUY!

Curse of the Gold Coins

As if Leano doesn't have enough problems trying to solve the problem of school fees. Now she's caught up in solving a crime that took place a hundred years ago. She must vindicate her great, great grandmother and hopefully the curse of the gold coins will disappear. Now CAPS approved in South Africa for grade 7!